Fat strikes, in which you either take a divot before the ball or come in too steeply and take a very deep divot, are something every golfers has suffered from. Before we look at ways to stop striking it heavy, let’s address three common causes.

2) Body too activeFor others, the club bottoms out early as a result of the body getting too active and moving forwards too early. This, in turn, drops the club too early so you lose the critical angles in the downswing. The club then comes in way too shallow making it very difficult to compress the ball and make good contact as it bottoms out too early.

3) Early releaseThen there’s the early release, which is where your right or dominant hand releases the angles too soon in its enthusiasm to do the hitting! This results in a big loss of power, and more importantly, an early divot as the club bottoms out before the ball as opposed to at the ball or beyond.

You need to lead a little bit with your body on the way down – your left knee should work away from your right knee, and your left hip should work slightly towards the target. This has the effect of ‘softening’ the right side, arm and shoulder so the club just drops into a different plane. The beauty of this is that it stores those wonderful angles, and also your power.

By storing, then releasing these angles later as you come into impact, you will compress the ball between turf and clubface and strike it much more purely.

5) ‘Soften’ the armsThe problems I’ve highlighted generally come from a similar area, and it can be quite a tricky one to work on. But you can practise the key moves in your garden without a ball to groove the feeling of the left side working first, with the club and arms just dropping a little and ‘softening’.